Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

bbmtwist Seeing this for the first time since its original release fifty years ago, I can gain perspective and see what holds up and what doesn't. So I want to concentrate on what is excellent and then look at what fails.First off, the choreography by Gillian Lynne is extraordinary - there are six dances associated with six of the songs and the dancing is some of the best ever filmed, yet who has ever heard of Gillian Lynne??? And why not??? Second, there's Grover Dale as lead dancer, and is he ever fine!!!! Wish we had more of his work on film, but sadly for posterity he was devoted to the stage and made few films.Third, the songs - the good ones - are all from the original show and there are five of them - All In The Cause of Economy, Half A Sixpence, Money To Burn, If The Rain's Got To Fall, Flash! Bang! Wallop!There are eight others, three of them new for the film (I Don't Believe A Word of It; The Race Is On; This Is My World) and they are negligible. Five remaining flop badly: Long Ago; I'm Not Talking To You; She's Too Far Above Me; A Proper Gentleman; I Know What I am.Now to the problems: Primarily Tommy Steele is an acquired taste. The Brits adore him, from rock star to song and dance man. He is a bit over the top - enough energy to light the entire electric world grid, and a smile with piano teeth that can be off-putting at times. Face it, he is quite homely, bordering on the ugly, but so sincere, and trying so hard to be entertaining, we must forgive him for his excesses. Then there is Julia Foster's Ann, a cruel, selfish, self- centered bitch we are supposed to care about. No, sorry - bad writing and acting there.The musical at 147 minutes, timed from the DVD release, is unforgivable in one instance: it is dull, dull, dull beyond belief. The libretto is tres boring, the plot is limp, the one conceit seeming to be "don't try to rise above your station in life." Don't tell that to Eliza Dolittle, please!The libretto condescends, but it does keep the British Upper Lip solidly in place! Nasty, that!The DVD release in widescreen has not been "restored" digitally, so it looks fuzzy and out of focus. Someone didn't want to spend the money to give it a proper refurbishing.I am keeping it for the half dozen brilliant song/dance numbers and will simply use the chapter feature to show these off to friends. They watch the entire film after that at their own risk.

ianlouisiana It doesn't seem that long ago when I saw this on the big screen complete with an intermission and a glossy programme.As a matter of fact it was the height of the "Swinging Sixties" and perhaps not the most obvious time to make a musical set in Edwardian times with an ex-fifties pop star in the lead role.The words "British" and "musical" are of course antithetical,the list of disasters and near disasters in this bastardised genre too long and too well-known to recount here.Presumably the producers hoped that by bringing in George Sidney they could breathe life into an already mouldering corpse.Sadly "Half a sixpence" was not a Lazarus-like project. The best Mr Sidney could do was to give it a semblance of life,even his considerable talents could not provide that vital spark to set the heart beating and the blood pulsing. Mr Tommy Steele,a decade earlier the archetypal cheeky cockney pop singer who was the best Britain could do in the rock n' roll industry's birth-pangs,had gamely fought his way from guitar-slinging to "family entertainer"status via pantomime and Variety bills.Shrewdly managed,he did not try to compete with the emerging "Beat Group" generation but capitalised on his broader appeal and toothy charm.Sadly it was not enough to smile and shake his blond hair a lot when it came to making a big movie, you needed that special quality that forces people to look at you rather than those round you,and he didn't have it. Watching "Half a Sixpence" is like indulgently watching your favourite nephew perform after Christmas dinner.While he chirps away merrily your eyelids droop and every so often when he gets extra loud you wake up with a start and pretend to be enjoying it. It isn't actually bad - it's just totally non-involving.The songs are blandly - if competently- performed,the dances likewise.The "Big Number","Flash,Bang,Wallop" neither flashes,bangs nor wallops. Miss Julia Foster has clearly been instructed to reign in her effervescent personality(and dye her hair so as not to rival Mr Steele's)but she still manages to be the best thing about the film. A lot of talented people did their very best to make "Half a sixpence" work.It must have been heartbreaking for them to put in so much effort to so little avail.Opening out the production from the relatively modest confines of the theatre destroyed it's warmth and intimacy.Replacing those attributes with brassiness and wide grins was,I'm afraid a retrograde step.

ptb-8 Here is a funny BIG frilly musical that is also a good comedy. Imagine someone moaning that it is too big, or even dreary! What a silly thing to feel when there is many musical scenes and easy comedy with which to have a great time. HALF A SIXPENCE is a British hybrid of TWO WEEKS WITH LOVE and HELLO DOLLY and belongs in that cinematic hat box of visual candy delights. If my mixed metaphors make sense (to those who know grammar...and grammar jokes). There is lovely film is all respects. It is raucous and silly and loaded with enough art direction and 'whalloping' stereo musical numbers to please even (Darling) Lili or even Leslie Caron at champagne best. HALF A SIXPENCE is actually a Teen musical but set in Victorian England. The dance numbers are just plain great, and humorous MGM veteran musical director George Sidney has delivered yet again. The music and tunes are memorable and if you see this film with educated kids, they get it and the experience is is a genuine family delight. A 'zac' in Oz vernacular is a sixpence...and there is more value than that in this DVD box of musical chocolates. Just enjoy it. Like those films also mentioned above. It has to be better than seeing Adam Sandler urinating on a door in BIG DADDY, the s-bend of 'family' movies for this clever new century.

jeff carol podge37 This is a very well acted and energetic musical. Tommy Steel and Julie Foster in the lead parts were brilliantly cast.The banjo scene in this was well choreographed, put together and acted out. To top the whole scene the banjo playing was superb.A brilliant family musical it gets a 10/10 from us. But then we are Tommy Steele fans.